Crystal Palace’s attempt to sign Hugo Ekitike from Paris Saint-Germain has already been well documented, but L’Equipe on Thursday give us a bit more of an insight about what happened behind the scenes.
A quick recap first, as we must recall that the Eagles came in late for the French forward, whom the Ligue 1 champions were trying to include in a deal to sign Randal Kolo Muani from Eintracht Frankfurt.
This was an option the player wasn’t overly keen on, as he was much more attracted at the idea of joining Crystal Palace, who had put forward an offer of a loan with an option to buy.
L’Equipe cover all of this on Thursday, explaining that the Selhurst Park side ‘had the lead’ in Ekitike’s mind, offering €3m up front for the loan and then an option to buy at €35m that would become compulsory after his 20th appearance.
Not only that, but Crystal Palace were also ready to take on all of his wages, which was attractive to him, since a move to Frankfurt would have seen him lose ‘more than 40% of his total revenue’.
However, Paris Saint-Germain were ‘deaf’ to the offer from England and were scared to lose Kolo Muani, ending up putting on a lot of pressure on Ekitike to change his mind.
They told him that for FFP reasons, they could ‘only accept a transfer’ and not a loan, which clearly wasn’t the case since they ended up signing the Eintracht striker without getting rid of Ekitike.
Not only that, but they also ‘promised’ the young striker ‘days without football’ if he continued to refuse a move to Germany.
The player stood firm and while he was ready to make some sacrifices on the money, he wanted to ‘choose his destination’.
Paris Saint-Germain, ‘not used to such opposition’, didn’t take it well, meaning that Ekitike now knows the next four months will be tough for him, as he will only be a part of training and very unlikely to feature in any games.
Therefore, he’s ‘working like he is going to play’ the next game, trying to keep his fitness up in hope that January gives him the exit he wants.
Having signed Kolo Muani and with them still ‘preoccupied with FFP’, there’s now a belief that another offer of a paid loan with a compulsory option to buy could see Paris Saint-Germain ‘revise their position’.
